


Waffles and Other Promises

by jhem211



Series: Badass Looking For Same [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 19:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18372341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jhem211/pseuds/jhem211
Summary: Post 4x16. Alex stays.





	Waffles and Other Promises

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this before 4x16 so it basically ignores everything that happened there. Thank you to everyone who commented and hit that kudos button on the previous story.

She isn’t the first to arrive, but Alex is the one who stays. 

She stays while Supergirl checks the perimeter. While the DEO collects the bodies. While Colonel Haley doesn’t bother hiding her suspicions of collusion between Lena and Lex.

She stays when Lena goes to the hospital to check on James. James, who Lena loves. Who Lena has worked diligently to protect from the consequences of a truth as inescapable as her shadow. Lena is a Luthor, and that renders her intentions irrelevant. James knows that as well she does now.

Lena doesn’t go into his room this time. She stands just outside of it, her hand hovering inches away from the window separating them. 

Alex stands just behind her, silent and guarding.

“You don’t have to follow me around,” Lena says.

“I know.” 

Neither of them says another word about it. Not when Lena’s car pulls into the underground parking garage of her building. Or when Alex follows her into the elevator and they make a quick and silent ride up to the penthouse.

Lena is grateful for it. She’s not ready to analyze the details of her continued capacity for naiveté or the subjective attributes of her genius. 

The elevator doors open, and Lena heads directly to her bar. She pours herself something dark that smells like the most delicate of fruit, but tastes of spiced oak. She takes a sip. Just one. Just enough for the silky liquid to coat her tongue and linger softly after it’s gone.

Alex stands on the other side. Still silent, still stoic, still there. 

“I’m confused,” Lena says.

“About?”

“When we became friends, exactly.” Most would take offense, Lena thinks. It’s not her intention to be flippant, she just prefers direct communication. 

“You care about my sister, and you always try to do the right thing. My bar for friendship is high, but those are pretty much the top rung for my super secret friendship club.” Alex doesn’t wink, but Lena feels the words like she did.

“Is there a secret handshake? A decoder ring, perhaps?”

“Nope. You just get me. Being here. When you need me.”

Lena hands Alex her glass as she walks by. “Well, friend. Drink that for me. I don’t like having more than a little when my emotions aren’t quite balanced.”

“What is it?” Alex asks, taking a sip.

Lena shrugs and kicks off her heels, “Louis XIII, I think.” 

Alex chokes. The cognac goes down completely wrong, her eyes tear up, and her coughs sputter like a backfiring car. 

Lena’s burst of laughter is the first she’s had in days, weeks, months?

“Warn a girl, next time,” Alex wheezes. She joins Lena on the couch, holding the glass like it holds the secrets to the universe. She clears her throat and takes another sip, eyes closed, senses purposefully open. Her micro expressions captivate Lena. She almost wants another taste because she’s certain she’s never experienced a drink as exquisitely as Alex is right now. 

“So,” Alex says after licking every drop from her lips. “Do you want to talk or do you want to tell me to swipe left or right on all the eligible women who love women in National City?”  


It’s one of the easiest choices Lena’s ever made. “Where’s your phone?” 

Alex hands it over, and Lena opens up Findher. She clicks on Alex’s profile, curious as to how a secret agent describes themselves to potential dates.

“Badass looking for same?” Lena reads, laughing again.

“Kara set up my profile,” Alex says, only a little defensive. “And anyway, it’s been very effective.”

“Fair enough.” 

Lena swipes left on the first woman within seconds.

“I didn’t even see her!” Alex says.

“She has pink hair. You’re not a pink hair kind of woman, Alex.”

“I’ll have you know, I went through a punk phase.”

“We all have our crosses to bear.”

Next Lena swipes left on Pheona because no one has time for that spelling. Then goes through ten more women for various reasons such as:

“She plays kickball. Eventually, she’ll expect you to show up at one of her games.”

“I don’t trust people who put their pets in their profile pictures.”

“Or their grandmothers.”

“The celery to her hummus? No.”

The first woman to get a swipe right is Aaliyah, a software engineer and founder of a nonprofit that teaches girls of color to code.

“Hmmm… do-gooder, smart, gorgeous. I approve,” Alex says.

“My taste is impeccable.”

“Yeah? So what’s your type?” Alex grabs her phone back and gets comfy like she’s been hanging out on Lena’s couch for years.

“I don’t really have a type.”

“I didn’t have a type because I was super gay and didn’t know it. What’s your excuse?”

Lena’s not really used to sharing, but it seems the Danvers sisters have unlocked some sort of cheat code that makes her want to tell them things. “My name tends to attract the wrong sort.” It’s all she wants to say about it, so she follows with, “Tell me about your first post Maggie date.”  


“So we can talk about my love life, but not yours?”

Lena gets comfortable too. She slides her heels off, tucks her legs under her, and leans her head against the back of the couch. “Just for tonight?” She asks. 

It’s a big ask. She knows. Probably unfair. But Lena wants to be distracted. Needs to be. Just for a little while longer. 

“Well,” Alex starts slowly, deliberating. “It was… awkward. Which is the default in my non-DEO life. I couldn’t stop talking about Maggie. Not intentionally. She just kept… popping up.”

“That went over well, I’m sure.”

“It worked out okay, actually.” Alex blushes. “My date just said, ‘since you’re not over your ex, do you want to fast-forward to the hot sex part then not talk to each other ever again?’”

“Director Danvers, who knew you had it in you?”

“Definitely not me,” Alex laughs.

“Was the sex hot as promised.”

“Very.”

“If only your agents could see this blush.”

“You will mention this blush to no one.” The blush spreads a bit further. Alex extends her hand. “Pinky swear.”

Alex’s hand hangs between them, pinky finger curled in invitation, and the humor abandons Lena as easily as it arrived. 

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve never pinky sworn before.” This confession isn’t a new theme. Lena could build a museum just to house the ordinary things she’s missed. 

Alex doesn’t raise her eyebrows in shock or laugh or do any of the things Lena expects. “I’m honored to be your first, then,” she says with complete sincerity.

So Lena Luthor, a few years away from thirty, hooks her pinky finger with Alex’s and pinky swears for the first time in her life. 

“We’re besties now. No take-backs,” Alex says, smiling.

“And what sort of benefits does being besties with you have over entry-level friendship.”

“I don’t know, actually. The only bestie I’ve ever had is Kara.”

“Same.”

“And she’s basically a puppy.“ 

“Which isn’t how I’d classify either of us.”

“So I guess we’ll figure it out as we go?”

“We should formulate a hypothesis.”

“Then test it.”

“Then modify as necessary.”

“Did we just apply the scientific method to friendship?” Alex asks.

“Yes.”

“Best friendship ever,” she says.

They’re at the beginning of something here. Lena doesn’t know what yet, but she feels it deeply. Like when she’s on the verge of a new idea and everything that makes her who she is attunes itself to finding the perfect question. 

This feels like that. 

Or like it could be more than that. 

Lena doesn’t know what more is, but that’s what experimentation is for. 

“First hypothesis,” Lena says. “If two people are really besties, then they’ll meet for Sunday brunch even if the world is semi-collapsing and brunch happens at some strange time of day.”

“Will there be waffles?”

“Maybe?”

“Okay, then. Brunch, hopefully with waffles, at some indeterminate time on Sunday when we get a free moment between actively saving the world from the ever-growing forces of evil.” 

Lena extends her pinky and Alex hooks their fingers together, sealing the deal.

“Thank you,” Lena says, seriously.

Alex smiles, soft and a bit peculiar. She’s not an expert on the smiles of Alex Danvers by any stretch, but this one feels special. Like perhaps it’s just for Lena.

“You’re welcome.”

They’re the last words said for the night as they ease into silence. It settles over them, warm like a blanket. Minutes drift until Lena’s asleep. 

When she wakes, hours later, it’s the middle of the night and Alex is still there, still guarding, even in sleep. 

Lena doesn’t exactly know what to do with this sudden development in her life except protect it with the full force of Lena from the slick danger of Luthor. 

A delicate battle to be sure, but one she intends to win. Because Lena Luthor with not one, but two real friends isn’t something she could have predicted, but now that she has it, she intends to keep it.

**Author's Note:**

> More to come. Comments are love.


End file.
